Over this past weekend a discussion broke out! (gasp! No, not a .....shhhhh, discussion!) Yep, guilty as charged. One of the headlines on one of the news breaks was that gas prices in our area had dropped either 3 or 5 cents, and I added that I had seen what would hopefully be true that later this year gas prices could be down by 50 cents or more from their current level.
Well the response I got wasn't what I was expecting. Instead of that would be good, or hopefully it will go down more, or I can't wait to buy a new methane-mobile to run on the dog's farts. The response was, why aren't people outraged at the oil company profits?
I had about 10 things race into my head at one time, ok only 8, the other two were related to the food and drink of the evening. :)
My initial response was, more importantly why isn't there outrage because our very own government will not let us explore for or drill for oil within our own country? To that there was relative silence and the discussion ended. I let all of the other things lay dormant I had no energy (pun intended), no ability to back what I wanted to say, nor did I wish to get into a deep political or philosophical debate on the closing eve of what had been to that point a stupendous weekend.
So now that I can actually cite references here it goes.
First, oil company profits. Companies are in business to make a profit, they are required to do this for the owners of their companies, the shareholders, and those shares are probably in a whole bunch of 401-k plans, profits are good, gouging is bad. The oil companies have been investigated on allegations of gouging ad-nauseam by our every efficient and productive politicians in Washington (that's not really tongue in cheek, it's more "trying to keep my coffee from coming out my nose"). So I really don't believe there is any gouging going on.
So why are prices so high, supply and demand is part of it. Price fixing at the supply side is part of it. Uncertainty in political, economical, and in the oil production itself. Couple that with the fact that not only has the all knowing, all seeing cabal known as the House and Senate not allowed us to drill within the confines of our very own nation, thereby relieving us of the need to play nice with some not so nice people, they have also prevented the construction of refineries, and nuclear power plants. Both of which would have a significant impact on the amount of fuel as gasoline that would be available to the US consumer, and as such, in a free market society, should drive the price back down.
So why isn't everyone up in arms about "Oil Company Profits"? I'm not sure, me? It certainly is more expensive to fill up now, and I do try to plan my driving to be more conservative (y'all should try being conservative, it's a good thing), and yes our budget is taking a hit, not just from our direct use, but the rising costs being passed to us at the store and otherwise.
But......here it comes.........wait for it...........do you happen to know that there is a group that has profited even more than the oil companies over the past decade or two? Your beloved State and Federal Governments. From 1977 to 2004 the estimated oil company profits are $643 Billion, but the combined Government "take" was $1,343 Billion, that's over twice as much. So my question is where is the outrage over this?
The other thing that get's lost in the shuffle, or in the case of younger people, what is the cost of a gallon of gas, comparatively speaking. We if you adjust the price of gasoline to an inflation index you would see the cost of our gasoline has been quite low, it peaked in the '70s during the oil embargo, and has peaked three times in the past three years, but thus far all three of those peaks are lower than the embargo days.
So where is the outrage? I have the same question, but directed in the opposite direction. Why can't we drill here? Why do we have to buy the majority of our oil from terrorists, nut jobs and parasites? Most of all, why are we spending tax money on CRAP, when you've taken in billions that should make our roadway system the shining example for the world, not the laughing stock?
Yet again, all roads lead to Washington (and/or your local State Capital).
